S - The hop profile is very floral and piney, with some ripe grapefruit and lemon zest. Malt character is very neutral and understated, with some bread and not much else.

T - The taste is sweeter, and I like the balance the sugary malt imparts. Candied citrus, ripe tangerine, and some rapidly rising bitterness in the finish. Perhaps the faintest hint of astringency but otherwise quite delightful.

Pours orange amber with a thin white head that quickly descends to a vanishing patch.

The smell is grapefruity and orange-y. It has citrus with caramel and some pine. There's a great hop spiciness going on here.

The taste is of grapefruity and piney hops that give a nice spiciness, supported and rounded out by a caramel sweetness. Finishes with a bitterish dryness.

It has a smooth, pretty chewy, medium body.

The alcohol is very well hidden, with just a touch of a soft kick appropriate for the body. Dangerously drinkable, it is well-balanced while showcasing Pacific NW hops. Disappears way too quickly for a 7.5%'er! Great stuff - Thanks again John!

Overall, it looks like a pretty standard IPA. Has no stand-out characteristics. Certainly not unique or special.

AROMA: Rather plain, actually. Pale malts, floral hop character, some untoward tropical fruit character. Hints of resins and hop oils. Hop bitterness is obnoxiously untamed, and rather forward at the expense of balance. Hints of soapiness and detergent off-character don't do this any favours. Slightly bready, with notes of vague fruitcake and sweetbread. Really quite simple.

Aromatic intensity is average. It's a soft aroma which doesn't assault the drinker, but it's just so...derivative?

No yeast character or overt alcohol is detectable (to style).

TASTE/TEXTURE: Rampant obnoxious hop bitterness runs rampant throughout the flavour profile, made worse by the beer's dragging coarse scratchy rough feel, which grates against the palate. The texture is just irritating - and stale to boot. The simple taste is comprised of generic pale malts, some uninteresting tropical fruit notes, and mundane floral hop character. Fundamental imbalance (particularly between malt sweetness and hop bitterness) makes this brew hard to enjoy.

Has a shallow depth of flavour. Average flavour intensity and duration. Poor flavour amplitude. There isn't any real complexity/intricacy, nuance, or subtlety to speak of. The ingredients clash, the choices of hops are poor, and the malt backbone is inadequate. It's a bit of a mess, and has a chaotic unguided overall feel. I struggle to enjoy it.

Additionally, it's overcarbonated and unrefreshing. Not a gestalt build for an IPA by any means. It just never feels like a cohesive whole.

OVERALL: I continue to be perplexed by the hullabaloo surrounding Firestone Walker - at least in terms of their hoppy offerings. This is - at best - a forgettable IPA with no characteristics that would lead the discerning drinker to regard it as world-class. A good beer of any style requires balance, but Firestone Walker has opted to disregard that axiom in favour of assaulting the drinker with an obnoxious loud hop bitterness that will only please adherents to the childish notion that more substantial hop content, higher IBUs, and maximal perceived bitterness are characteristics indicative of quality. IPA brewing is not a dicksizing competition to see who can pack more hop essence into a liquid; it's a craft which requires careful attention to balance and subtlety. This beer industry equivalent of the Loudness War has to stop.

Good initial head, but I'm really impressed with the blanket of lace that remains long after the brew is gone. The color is a neutral gold. Crystal clear.

Prickly to the nose with white pepper and evergreen. Very clean and inviting. The hop is strongest but it is spot on in intensity.

Smooth initial feel to the body. Good carbonation. The flavor begins with a strong, nearly dry, pale malt. No grassiness at all. The bitterness is strong enough to punch through but it isn't extreme by any means. The aftertaste is actually a blend of the two--the hop features the white pepper bite noted in the smell.

Overall, this is perhaps the finest American Pale Ale I've ever tasted. It belongs to pantheon of great APAs--Sierra Nevada, Stone and Fresh Hop from Great Divide.

Pours a cloudy golden color with a white head. Aroma is tons of citrus hops. Flavor is very hoppy but not too bitter. The predominant flavor is orange and other citrus fruits. Medium mouthfeel and very drinkable.This is a beer that I could drink several of in one sitting, unlike some of the hoppier less-balanced versions of this style. This is a great beer.

A full pour yields a three-finger thick, pale tan colored head in my 25cl tulip. The beer is a brilliantly clear, deep copper / amber color and becomes a bright copper color when held up to the light. A nicely resinous hop character greets my nose as I go in for a draught of the aroma; a mix of ruby-red grapefruit, lychee, tangelo peel, apricot and a zesty herbal pine note that provides a bit of contrast. Not much in the way of malt comes through in the aroma, it plays more of a supporting role for the dominant hop character, but there are some biscuit-like malt notes if you really dig for them. I really like the smooth, fruity hop notes that are found in the nose, they make this beer quite inviting.

Lightly sweet, with a caramelized malt touch that really serves to accentuate certain aspects of the dominant hop flavors. Flavors of grapefruit, tart orange zest and lychee are accentuated by the sweetness, but there are also substantial hop flavors of pine, menthol and "herb" like flavors. There is a nice biting, though note overwhelming bitterness, that hits you as the beer first hits the tongue and lingers on into a very long finish, long after the beer has left my mouth. Speaking of the finish, towards the beginning of the finish some crushed malt flavors, biscuit-malt and saltine-cracker notes become noticeable. These last, though not a huge flavor player, do provide a nice boost of complexity to this beer. This is nice and drinkable, I wouldn't have guessed this was 7.5% abv as it drinks a bit lighter than that, still it has a chewy heft to it that really serves to carry the ample hop character.

It seems like I haven't had a nice, juicy, American example of an IPA in a while, this one definitely hits the spot & is a great example of the style. It is perhaps not quite as juicy and over the hop, I mean top, as I think it could be, but that is really nit-picking as this is a very hoppy brew.

Smell- Sweet fresh grapefruit nose. Malty goodness as well. This one is going to be sugary.

Taste- Hmmm, not a sugary as expected, but just about right. The toasted caramel candy malt fits well with the very large blast of grapefruit hoppiness. Alcohol is there, but this beer does a good job of hiding it.

Mouthfeel- Slightly creamy and smooth with a perfect sweet aftertaste. Carbonation is right where it should be. Wish there was just a touch more of hop bitterness that follows you home.

Drinkability- The winner in my mind at this years fest. Sadly, it didn't place in the top three. It was Firestone Walker's first attempt at making this brew. They just kegged it the day before and my friend was the first in line to try it. Hope they keep making this one as it's one of the better DIPA's I've had.

12 ounce bottle into tulip glass, bottled 5/29/2012. Pours lightly hazy golden amber color with a 1-2 finger fairly dense off white head with great retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lingers. Some nice foamy lacing clings to the glass. Aromas of big grapefruit, orange zest, pineapple, herbal, floral, pine, bread, caramel, and light earhy spiciness. Fantastic aromas with great strength and balance. Taste of big grapefruit, orange zest, herbal, floral, pine, caramel, bread, and herbal spiciness. Good amount of bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of citrus, herbal, pine, caramel, bread, and herbal spiciness on the finish for a good bit. Fantastic hop flavor complexity; with an awesome balance of malt sweetness with bitterness. Medium carbonation and body; with a fairly creamy and crisp mouthfeel that is very nice. Alcohol is very well hidden with pretty much zero warming noticed on the finish. Overall this is an outstanding IPA. Great hop flavor balance and malt/bitterness balance. Really enjoyed this one, I wish I could get it around me.

One of 24 taps at the Greenroom, Flagstaff. My second beer, the name pulled me towards it, would it be like a UK IPA, being called Union Jack?

This is an all American IPA, hops to the fore!

The deep golden orange almost headless beer stared back at me, daring me to sniff and drink it. We locked horns and the battle began.

Hops attacked my nose, with hints of citrus fruits attempting to sneek through without a safety net, I laughed and took the hits without flinching.

Do your worst American hops, I'm ready for you. The taste was a hop blend which didn't have the bitterness some US IPA's have a habit of giving you, this was easy drinking compared to many. My delicate English palate wasn't offended in the slightest. I also noticed some caramel notes trying to get out of the glass, but the hops didn't allow anything else to have a say in the flavours and wouldn't let it become truely noticable.

Not a bad experience at all, I must be getting used to all these hops I keep coming up against on my US road trip.

A: Pours a crystal clear dark copper to amber in color. The beer has a finger tall dense dark beige head that reduces to a thick film covering the entire surface of the beer with a thick ring at the edges of the glass. Moderate to significant amounts of lacing are observed.

S: There is a light aroma of rich caramel malt sweetness and strong aromas of pine/resin and citrus/grapefruit hops.

T: Moderate amounts of caramel malt sweetness. On top of the malt body there is a strong flavor of citrus/grapefruit hops as well as some lighter notes of pine/resin hops. There is a light amount of bitterness. Overall, the beer is very well balanced.

M: Medium bodied with moderate amounts of carbonation. Crisp with moderate dryness in the finish.

O: This beer is very enjoyable, easy to drink, and I would gladly have this one again. There is a really nice taste and smell for this beer.

Thanks to eagles22 for the extra. 12oz brown bottle with a date stamp of 6/6/11. Poured into a DFH shaped goblet. This brew appears a perfectly clear color of orange with 2 fingers worth of yellowish stained fluffy head that collapses and turns more white in color. A constant stream of carbonation rises to the surface in support of the head which lasts with slightly more than a film across the top throughout the entire duration. Thick patches of lace cling all about the glass in a webby pattern. This is a beautiful looking brew.

The aroma of this brew is a bright, fresh scent of hoppy goodness. It is floral, fruity, citrus-like, herbal and leafy with grassy characteristics. Some grapefruit-like strong scents, some pulp character as well. A very strong scent of fresh hoppy oils completely dominates the nose. As the brew warms up, it picks up a light spiced aspect from the alcohol which accents the fruity and floral aspects and it picks up a mild stinky cheese aspect very much similar to other big, bold ipas. There is hardly a malt inclusion to this brew's nose, it is all about the hops and it is fantastic.

The taste is more flavorful with hops than it is bitter. Don't get me wrong, it is modestly bitter but the hoppy oils and flavoring are all across the board and very enjoyable. Tastes of grapefruit pulp, rind and flesh comes together with spicy herbal, grassy and leafy notes. There are floral and fruity flavors which are a combination of the alcohol esters mixed with the hops. A very faint toasty malt backing is present with a flavor and not much residual sweetness.

This is a medium bodied brew with a modest level of carbonation. It is a wonderful example of fresh hop flavoring, very bright with hop characteristics in both flavor and aroma with a boundy of hop flavors without being brutally bitter. This is very easy drinking for more than 7% abv, it is nearly poundable. I fault this brew for being a little watery, but wow is it drinkable. It leaves an oily hop residue clinging inside the mouth that is very enjoyable long after a sip is taken. Fantastic stuff. For being more than a month old, this brew has such a remarkable fresh aspect that outdoes some other hoppy brews that I have had more fresh and don't taste this fresh. If you haven't had this, get out there and find it now.